1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to equipment for cleaning the surface of an ingot in a mold. More specifically, the present invention concerns an apparatus having a trunnion mounted, bearing supported knife and a floating brush for cleaning the surface of an ingot in a mold.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In the molding industry, materials are commonly molded into convenient shapes to facilitate their transport. For example, metals such as aluminum and lead are typically molded into stackable ingots of various standard weights (e.g., 65 and 100 lb. bars). When material is cast into an ingot in a mold, dross (e.g., bits, flashing, overfill, spillage, etc.) typically forms on the top surface of the ingot and the mold itself. It is desirable for the ingots to have a generally smooth surfacexe2x80x94a smooth surface facilitates uniform stacking of the ingots as well as enhances the overall appearance of the materialxe2x80x94therefore it is desirable to clean off and remove the dross.
Cleaning of the top surface of the ingot and the mold is typically performed by running a knife across the surface of the mold and in some applications may further include passing the ingot-filled-mold under a wire-type brush to further clean the surface (e.g., shavings from the knife).
Known prior art knives include cutting blades mounted on the end of, and supported by, an actuated piston and cylinder assembly. Unfortunately, these cylinder mounted blades tend to wear out quickly, frequently break and require significant maintenance, resulting in frequent downtime of the entire assembly line.
Known prior art brushes include wire-type brushes that are manually or mechanically height-adjusted to control/adjust the surface pressure of the brush on the ingot. Unfortunately, these manually or mechanically adjusted brushes often require adjustment, wear out quickly, and scratch the surface of the ingot. These problems are undesirable because they result in added expense, downtime and lower quality ingots.
The present invention provides an improved cleaner that does not suffer from the problems and limitations of prior art cleaners set forth above. The inventive cleaner provides a knife that does not transfer the shock force associated with the sudden stoppage of the knife along the ingot-filled-mold surface (e.g., hitting a bolt-head protruding from the mold surface) directly to the actuated piston and cylinder assembly. The inventive cleaner further provides a brush that does not apply excessive pressure on the ingot surface (i.e., undesirable brush-wearing or ingot-scratching pressure) and does not require frequent height adjustment.
The cleaner of the present invention broadly includes a boom pivotally mounted to a base and operable to pivot about an upright axis, an arm housed at least partially within the boom, pivotally mounted thereto, and operable to pivot about a horizontal axis, a cutting blade slidably mounted on the arm and operable to cut dross off of ingot-filled-molds, and a rotatable brush pivotally mounted to a brush arm about a horizontal axis and operable to brush dross off of the surface of ingot-filled-molds.
The cutting blade is driven by a piston and cylinder assembly coupled between the blade and the arm, pivotable about a center axis, and operable to slide the blade relative to the arm. The arm is pivoted by a piston and cylinder unit coupled between the arm and the boom and operable to pivot the arm relative to the boom.
The brush arm is rigidly fixed to the base. The brush is pivoted by a piston and cylinder combination coupled between the brush and the brush arm and operable to pivot the brush relative to the brush arm to maintain a substantially constant pressure on the surface of ingot-filled-molds.
In operation, the cylinder assembly slides the blade along the surface of an ingot-filled-mold moving along a conveyor. As it slides, the blade cuts dross off of the surface of the ingot-filled-mold. The cylinder unit then retracts, pivoting the arm, while the cylinder assembly recoils the blade. The ingot-filled-mold continues to move along the conveyor where it passes under the rotating brush. The brush brushes remaining, loosened dross off of the surface of the ingot-filled-mold.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawing figures.